The transition to seeing professional athletes’ birthdays on rosters be in the 2000s has come and gone. Olympic fans need to prep themselves for the newest reason to feel old: there will be athletes on the big screen born in the 2010s.
Meet Chinese skateboarder Zheng Haohao, who was born on August 11, 2012. At the age of 11, she is the youngest Olympian in the Paris 2024 field, according to the Independent, still a couple weeks shy of her twelfth birthday.
Not only is Zheng the youngest in these Olympics, but she is also the youngest athlete ever to compete for China in the Games, according to Reuters.
The preteen picked up the skateboard just four years ago on her seventh birthday, per Reuters. She was the youngest athlete to compete in China’s National Games in 2021, when she finished in 14th place. She was 9 years old.
In 2023 she began her international career at the World Skateboarding Tour in Argentina, according to the China Daily. She qualified for the Olympics by completing a 540 flip in the Budapest Olympic Qualifier Series.
Now, just a year after starting to skateboard internationally, Zheng is set for the Olympics. The world will be watching as she shows that Gen Alpha is here to compete.
The youngest athlete to ever compete in the Summer Olympics was Greek gymnast Dimitrios Loundras, who debuted in the 1896 Athens Olympics at the age of 10 years and 218 days.
